Monday, March 24, 2008

I just started taking this lyric quiz, and it's so friggin hard that I had to give up on it for now (the lyrics to each song are given alphabetically). I got 2 out of the first 3, but this will consume hours of my life, so I'm gonna postpone for now. Good luck to anyone who does take it, though.

Also, thanks to Lindsey for pointing out this incredible Onion article.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Some Updates
1) I've started writing for The Sauce on Fuse. Monday is the first show I will have contributed to, and Tuesday is the first show I will have written. Check it out, won't you?
2) Last week I had my (pseudo) final appointment with the sleep clinic. Not because I'm cured, per se... it's just that they've done all that they can for me. And basically I'm supposed to stay on a 1am-8am sleep schedule (8:30am on weekends) for the rest of my life. Can't say that I'm thrilled about that. After all of this, I'm not exactly sure which I prefer... falling asleep in about 25 minutes but only getting 6 1/2 hours, or taking almost 2 hours to fall asleep but getting a good 8 (on days I can sleep in). But at least I don't have to go all the way to the bowels of the Bronx anymore... except for a follow-up in 3 months, which is why it was my pseudo-last visit.
3) Last night I saw Australian comedian / musician Tim Minchin's Off-Broadway show. His show is half stand-up / storytelling and half songs. People in the NYC area, I highly recommend seeing it. Here's a sample of what you can expect:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

If I had any guts, I'd print up a t-shirt saying "I'm not just sure... I'm HIV Positive!"



But I don't.

(Please watch the entire season premiere)

- I'm still heartbroken over the end of The Wire. The final episode wasn't as good as the penultimate (that's second-to-last, for all the dopes out there), but I loved it anyway. Everyone I know who watches the show is heartbroken about what happens to Dukie, and I think that the scene between him and Presbo was the best of the episode. Damn, I'm gonna miss this show. Hopefully they'll release a massive DVD box set of the entire series, and hopefully someone will be nice enough to buy it for me.

- Yesterday my mom made me call her to tell her the Post and Daily News headlines about Spitzer, even though they are easily accessible online. My dad thought that the Post's "Ho No!" was very funny. So did I. My mom didn't get it.

- New York's K-Rock radio (92.3 FM) is doing a March Madness-type bracket trying to find the best rock band of all time. Here is my bracket (note that you fill it out based on the world's opinion, not your own... otherwise mine would have looked rather different). So far there have been 9 battles, and I've only picked 7 correctly, because New York-area radio listeners are apparently morons. I don't even like the White Stripes, but they should have beaten Audioslave. And for Sublime to beat Alice in Chains is sacrilege (although probably not completely unexpected, as a friend told me that a recent poll by LA's KROQ listeners ranked Sublime as the #2 band, behind only Nirvana). So no 73-inch flatscreen TV for me.

- Some fancy boutique store is offering an updated version of Hypercolor shirts... at $68 a pop. And they look really lame. Not like the original ones from the late 80s, which were cool. And to answer your question: no, I will not be buying one. Seriously. I won't. Swear to God.

- MTV is streaming the trailer for Lost Boys 2, which looks utterly atrocious. And if what's on screen isn't bad enough, there's also a horrible cover of "Cry Little Sister," one of the best movie theme songs of the 80s. I don't recommend watching it, but if you really wanna, here it is:

Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Hair Up There
I was wondering... why is baldness basically the same pattern for all balding men? It's the horseshoe-shaped line of hair that goes from the ears around the back of the head. Why doesn't it ever reverse itself, so that the hair goes around the forehead? Or the opposite, where there is just hair on the top and forehead but not around the sides and back? Or stripes, like Mr. T? Or just random splotches? I can't think of a good scientific reason for that pattern to be useful... if anything, it exposes the front and top of the head to dangerous sunlight. Anyone have info on this?

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

RIP, Jeff Healey. He was 41, and blind, and very talented. I'm not that familiar with his music, but his song "Angel Eyes" did land at #68 in my list of my 100 favorite songs of the 80s. And he even proved he had some acting chops in Roadhouse. Rent it in his honor (and to see Patrick Swayze rip out a guy's throat).

Monday, March 03, 2008

Facts & Figures From My Recent LA Trip
- Nights spent: 8
- Different couches (or floors) I crashed on: 4
- Times I ate at In & Out Burger: 1
- Times I ate at Roscoe's House of Chicken N Waffles: 1
- Times I ate at Griddle Cafe: 1
(None of these figures were nearly high enough)
- Words to adequately describe the deliciousness of the Nutella French toast at Griddle Cafe: 0
- Concerts attended: 3 (Jon Brion @ Largo, Tilly & the Wall @ Echo, Grizzly Bear & LA Philharmonic @ Walt Disney Concert Hall)
- Number of celebrities spotted: 3 (Matt Dillon @ Griddle Cafe, the oldest son from Big Love @ Grizzly Bear, Adrian Grenier @ Tilly & the Wall)
- Number of seconds after spotting her that Adrian started hitting on my friend Amy, despite the fact that he was with a date: approximately 7
- Number of times I've left a credit card at a bar in 79 months living in NYC: 0
- Hours I'd been in LA before leaving a credit car at a bar: 12
(At Largo after seeing Jon Brion. I went back 2 nights later to get it back, on a night when Sarah Silverman and Louis CK were doing stand-up, and managed to sneak into the sold-out bar unnoticed and without paying a cover... then I stupidly sought out the owner instead of waiting until after the show, and he kicked me out after giving me my card back. I'm an idiot.)
- Number of car crashes witnessed: 1
- Number of minutes spent in traffic: incalculable
(No wonder there's so much traffic there... drivers don't know how to stay in one lane, they don't signal, the roads all need to be repaved, light sequences suck so that you hit red light after red light, lanes are simultaneously for driving and parking... it's the traffic more than anything else that's preventing me from moving out there)
- Chance I'll move out there in the near future: still very slim to none